Abstract

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA), combined with argonion sputter depth profiling, has been employed for the characterization of aluminum, titanium boride, and nitride films deposited by dc-magnetron sputtering from multicomponent alloy targets. The XPS results show that metallic Al, TiB₂, and TiN films are formed by this method. However, depth profile results indicated substantial oxide contamination as high as 30 atomic % throughout the bulk of the films. Given the gross oxide contamination, multicomponent alloy target materials appear to be unsuitable for producing high-quality metal/metallic films for applications where electrical conductivity is a critical requirement.

Optimization of sputtered titanium nitride as a tunable metal for plasmonic applications

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